


The Function of Life is Survival

by mizface



Category: due South
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-10-27
Updated: 2009-10-27
Packaged: 2017-10-24 18:55:39
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 301
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/266740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mizface/pseuds/mizface
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Something was wrong in Canada.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Function of Life is Survival

**Author's Note:**

> written for ds_snippets, for the prompt "mask." What follows are 300 unsettling words.

Something was wrong in Canada. Ray could feel the weird vibe as he waited in the doorway for Fraser. Turnbull was at his desk, watching Ray quietly, and the lack of chatter was just not right. Ray hustled Fraser out of there as soon as he came into the hall. Glancing back, Ray saw Thatcher at the window, a strange smile on her face that made his skin crawl.

“So, no furball today?” he asked as they got belted in, trying to hide his relief at leaving the Consulate.

“I’m afraid he let himself be a guinea pig for one of Turnbull’s culinary ventures,” Fraser responded. “We thought it best he rest today.”

That explained the quiet – a guilty Turnbull was a silent Turnbull. But it didn’t explain the hard, calculating look he’d caught Turnbull giving him.

Ray shook off his unease and started talking about the case they were working. Fraser’s answers were thorough, his ideas decent, but something was missing that Ray couldn’t put his finger on. It was like Fraser had the whole Mountie Mask thing cranked up to a new level. By the day’s end Ray was so on edge he wanted to hit something.

He tried to just drop Fraser off at the Consulate but Fraser invited Ray inside, seemingly oblivious to the tension. It was the last thing he wanted to do, but he figured he should at least check on Dief. Only, Fraser’s office was empty, and there was a clump of blood-matted fur caught on the edge of Fraser’s cot.

“Diefenbaker didn’t adapt to us as well as we thought he would,” Fraser said calmly, as if that answered everything. He smiled then, cold and wrong, turning Ray’s blood to ice as he grabbed Ray’s arm. “But we have high hopes for you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Title from the 1978 film "Invasion of the Body Snatchers"


End file.
